Studies show that Ramadan is the single most important time of year for British Muslims. Food is central: in its absence during daylight hours for those fasting and when Iftar (evening meal) breaks the fast.

But you wouldn’t know it from British supermarkets’ retail comms.

In late 2021, we noticed:

Ramadan was absent

Tesco’s 2020 lockdown ‘Food Love Story’ campaign featured Muslim brothers cooking for Iftar, but Ramadan was still absent in ATL competitor advertising by 2021.

2. …Or misunderstood

One competitor even featured Ramadan comms alongside in-store alcohol promotions.

Tesco serves the most British Muslim customers, so it had a duty to help this community feel more represented. Its brand purpose is “serving customers, communities and the planet a little better every day”. We began a proactive workstream to deliver on this for British Muslims.

Objectives:

We wanted to engage the community with better representation

…and get people talking

‘Together this Ramadan’ came from deep and authentic collaboration with the community. Muslim chefs, photographers and food stylists.

We crafted two assets to run on large digital billboards; one featuring empty plates pre-sunset, then fading to an asset showing 25 full plates at sundown.

We secured billboards in areas with high Muslim populations: West London, Birmingham, Southampton and Bradford. The media agency helped us select eastwards sites, to accentuate the sunset behind.

The Unmistakables ensured every detail was insightful. They consulted on copy: Arabic or English? Sombre or celebratory? Tesco’s Network advised on food: “include the water and the dates as it is an important part.”

We activated three-hour roadblocks around sunset to eliminate interruption. Timing was crucial. Iftar begins exactly at sunset, which changes by 49 minutes from the start of Ramadan to Eid, and varies between locations. DOOH.com technology allowed us site-by-site activation to guarantee precision.